One of the reasons these blog posts are coming few and far between is that when i started this, I declared to myself that I wouldn't go into politics. I wouldn't start blathering on about the politics of the day.

It's not being overly political to say that this is a hard time to keep that promise. I am listening, and I am watching. I am making sure that my characters are real, in that their points of view are just as valid as the diverse points of view we have in America today. I just don't want to bring them to the same level of hate and contempt that I see infecting America. ... [More]

For the last twenty years my mother and her brother have been living in Arizona in quiet retirement. My uncle is an artist and my mother never held a high paying job, so it took both of their social security checks to cover rent.

Over the last decade, my mother had required more and more care, as the first signs of dementia appeared, and she became increasingly fragile. Over time she's broken her hip and had several bouts of pneumonia. Recently she fell again and was hospitalized. After years of her refusing to voluntarily move into a nursing home, the folks at the hospital dec... [More]